Classified Christmas Mission

by Lynette Eason

  “Who?” Clay asked and stepped up look out.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think our attackers expected them. They’ve turned their weapons away from us and are aiming at the barn.” Lance drew in a breath. “It could be Justin and Handy. They were probably home and would’ve heard the shots. I warned them trouble might be coming.”

  “Hope they stay out of sight.”

  “Yeah.”

  “We can’t assume it’s them, though.”

  “I know.”

  One of the shooters kept his weapon trained behind them, the other turned to aim back at the house.

  “Keep them occupied while I get Amber and Sam out of here.”

  “How? The temps are falling again. Where will you go?”

  “I have a little hideaway place up where the caves are.” He had to raise his voice over Sam’s angry screams. “It’s not bad, better than camping and I can keep us warm and fed.”

  “How will I find you?”

  “I have a radio up there. You can find me.”

  Clay picked up his own radio. “Where’s that backup?”

  “Ten minutes out,” came the crackling reply.

  Lance checked his weapon once more. “It’s snowing again. Hopefully it’ll be enough to cover our tracks.”

  “No,” Clay said, “you need to come to the ranch. I’ve got help coming to watch it.”

  “Are they there yet?”

  “Not the complete group. This weather is playing havoc with travel.” He scowled. “But there are enough out there to keep you and Amber and Sam safe.”

  “No,” Amber said from her position under the coffee table. She dodged a foot to the face. “I won’t take danger to Mom and Dad. Forget it.”

  Lance thought he heard Clay growl. The man was definitely frowning. “Fine. But I need someone to go after. I need a name, an organization.”

  “You have it,” Amber said. “Yousef Pirhadi.”

  “Come on, Amber, I know that. I need a back door. Someone who’ll help me get him.” She hesitated. “Who?” he pressed.

  “There might be one man. He works for Pirhadi and he’s no innocent by any means, but he didn’t seem quite as hardened as the others.”

  “A name.”

  “I know him as Taj Melbourne.”

  “There’s no one out back that I can see,” Kat said as she walked into the den. “Just the four in the front and they’ve stopped shooting for now, but Trent is keeping an eye out in the back just in case they decide to move that way.” She went to the window nearest Lance. “Are they still out there?”

  “They are. But they haven’t sent any more bullets flying this way and that makes me nervous,” Lance said. “I think two men who work for me are out there and sent a few bullets their way as a warning to cease and desist. For now, they’re not moving. It’s like they’re trying to figure out their next move.”

  Sam’s screams ceased almost as abruptly as they’d started. Lance looked to see Amber still under the table with Sam. Only instead of fighting her, Sam had his head on her leg and was rocking back and forth. “We’re going to walk out of here and let Clay and Trent cover us,” Lance told her. “Are you up to it?”

  “We’re going to the caves?” she asked. A trickle of sweat dripped from her temple and she swiped it on her shoulder. Sam had given her a workout.

  Lance nodded. “It’s the only thing I can think of for now. The bad guys don’t know about it and we’ll be safe there while Kat and Clay do some more investigating into Pirhadi. Backup is on the way out here, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take them to get here thanks to this weather. The hike won’t take long. Thirty minutes at the most. I can carry Sam if he’ll let me.”

  “We could take your snowmobiles,” she said.

  “And Pirhadi’s goons would follow us right to the cave. The snow will cover our tracks faster than it will the snowmobiles’.”

  Amber hesitated then swept Sam’s dark hair from his forehead. He felt warm and his chest rose up and down with his rapid breaths. He watched them with distant eyes, but he was watching and listening. “Yes, you’re probably right. All right. We’ll need supplies.”

  “Already packed them just in case.”

  She nodded then looked down at Sam. “We’re going to get dressed up very warm and then we’re going to go on a short hike, okay, buddy?”

  “I have a smaller coat he can use. It’s one my nephew uses when he comes to visit. It’ll still swallow him, but it’ll keep him warm.”

  “Good. That’ll work,” Amber said.

  Kat turned from the window. “They’re leaving.”

  Lance heard the hum of the snowmobiles—and the sirens in the distance. “They’re leaving, but they’ll be back.”

  “I think I might have had something on Pirhadi before the attack,” Kat said. “Looks like he’s done some extensive travel outside of Ibirizstan and met with some shady characters.”

  “Shocking,” Amber muttered.

  “But I can’t place him anywhere he shouldn’t be without good reason. He owns several businesses and travels to them frequently. He does other stuff while he’s there. Stuff that looks like not-so-good stuff, but still...he has a reason to be there.”

  “Keep looking.”

  “Ravi,” Sam said. “Ravi, Ravi, Ravi.”

  “Who’s that?” Kat asked.

  “I don’t know,” Amber said and crawled from her tight spot. She stood and helped Sam up. “But see if you can connect a person named Ravi to Pirhadi. At this point, anything is possible.”

  The sirens grew closer. The hum of snowmobiles filled the house. “Plane,” Sam said.

  “No, those are snowmobiles, Sam,” Amber told him. “Now we’re going to get going while there’s no one out there to shoot at us.”

  * * *

  Amber bundled Sam up so he could barely see through the small crack between the hat and the scarf across his face but she didn’t want him getting cold.

  Once they were ready, Lance threw the duffel bag on his back and led the way out the back of the house. Clay would take care of the officers that had arrived on the scene and make sure evidence was efficiently collected. Anything he needed analyzed would be shipped to the lab in Nashville. In the meantime, she and Sam and Lance would be on their way to safety.

  It was cold. The temperatures probably hovered in the freezing range. “Watch out for ice,” Lance said.

  “Yep.” She held Sam’s hand and he let her. He was probably totally confused, but at least he was calm for now. And hopefully warm enough. Amber tucked her chin into her borrowed scarf and couldn’t deny that in spite of the circumstances, it felt wonderful to have one of Lance’s heavy coats surrounding her. It made her feel close to him. She’d always thought her friends were silly when they would wear their boyfriends’ letter jackets and jerseys. She’d never had a boyfriend—they’d all been too intimidated by the Starke brothers. It wasn’t until she was in college that she’d finally been able to breathe—and have guys notice her without fear of being interrogated by a Starke male.

  But she’d never worn one of her boyfriends’ coats. Amber followed in Lance’s footsteps and decided she just might not give the coat back. Assuming they came down from the caves in one piece.

  Sam seemed to like the hike and if Amber hadn’t been concerned about feeling a bullet strike her between her shoulder blades, she would have enjoyed it, as well. However, she really just wanted to arrive at their destination and hunker down until she could figure out their next move.

  She looked back and saw that Lance’s house was a good distance away. “Not much farther,” he said.

  The exercise was keeping her warm, and soon she was ready to shed the coat she’d only a few minutes before decided she never wanted to part with
.

  Sam stopped and sat down. Lance looked back, over their shoulders, then again to her and Sam. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure. He’s probably just tired.” She tugged on his hand. “Come on, Sam, it’s not much longer. I’ll carry you.” She picked him up and he laid his head on her shoulder.

  Lance tucked his weapon away and held out his hands. “Let’s see if he’ll let me carry him.”

  Amber hesitated, but knew he’d have more stamina than she at this point. “All right, but give me the duffel bag.” Lance set the bag on the ground. Amber passed Sam to Lance and the child did the same thing. Simply laid his head on Lance’s broad shoulder. She frowned and decided to count their blessings at his lack of a protest.

  She drew her weapon and stayed behind Lance and Sam, her adrenaline rushing. And while they now had some tree coverage, she still didn’t like being out in the open. She picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. Lance continued to lead the way, up the hills and through the snow. He knew exactly where he was going so that helped make the short journey a bit easier even though the snow continued to fall and she knew soon it would be to her shins. But at least their tracks would be covered. And Sam appeared to be content to let Lance carry him.

  Lance gave a grunt. “Here we are.”

  Amber blinked. “Are where?”

  He smiled. “At my favorite place.” He reached out and it looked like he was going to try to push over a tree. Instead, he reached past the trunk and she heard a low hum start. It was faint, very quiet and she probably wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the situation. Sam lifted his head from Lance’s shoulder and pushed the scarf off his face.

  Lance walked around the tree and disappeared into a small crack in the rock barely wide enough to let him through. Amber followed him and blinked, hardly able to believe her eyes. Two small lamps glowed in what would have been darkness. A love seat sat against one wall, a bookshelf was on the opposite one. A recliner faced her. A coffee table sat in the middle of a rug. “What... When... How?”

  “And I have electricity thanks to a generator.”

  “The hum I heard.”

  “Yes.”

  She looked up at the ceiling where he’d installed a vent. “And that’s why I feel warm air blowing in here.”

  “Yep.” Lance set Sam on the twin bed at the back of the cave and handed him his game. Then he walked back to the opening and pulled a piece of plastic over it. He turned to her. “After Krissy’s betrayal, it was hard to stay in the house, but I didn’t want to move. That was my land, my family’s land.” He shrugged. “But I needed a place to go to...heal, I suppose. I used to take long hikes, spend all my spare time up here when I wasn’t working. And one day I came across this small cave. It’s very small and there’s only one way in and one way out so not very good in a sense that if we get caught here, we’re sitting ducks.”

  Her eyes roamed. “It looks like a small apartment. You framed it and drywalled it and everything. And this floor... Wow. I love the hardwoods. I’d never believe we were in a cave—except for the lack of windows.”

  He gave a nod and tilted his head toward the back to the little door next to the bed where Sam lay still. “There’s even indoor plumbing—rustic, but it works.”

  “Amazing. And you did all this by yourself?”

  “Yes. This is my therapy.” His lips quirked up in a half smile. “It was cheaper than a psychiatrist.”

  “Wow. When you said you were handy with a hammer, I never imagined.”

  “It would never meet code with a building inspector, but it’s something I worked on while I dealt with my anger and bitterness toward Krissy—and God. And now I come up here when I just want to get away or think or whatever.”

  She bit her lip. She could understand the bitterness, the anger. She was working on some of that, as well. “Did you ever feel like God let all that happen as a punishment for something?” she blurted. “That all the bad things happened because—”

  He lifted a brow and she looked away, biting off her words. Sam had fallen asleep on the bed, his game beside him.

  “You mean like because I wasn’t good enough or because of some of the choices I’ve made along the way that might have not been the right ones and God decided to put me in my place so to speak?”

  “Something like that,” she murmured.

  “No.” She let her gaze collide with his. “That’s not His nature. At least I don’t believe that. We need to have a healthy fear of God, but not a fear that stems from worrying about ‘if I do this, then God’s going to strike me down’ kind of thing. Yes, He allows us to have consequences, but—” He shook his head. “I’m not explaining this very well, but here’s what I’ve come to understand. There are consequences for our actions. Natural consequences. If I speed, I might get stopped and get a ticket. If I put my hand on a hot stove, I’m going to get burned. If I marry someone my parents and friends warn me about then I might end up a very unhappy man. But not because He deemed it necessary that I needed to suffer because I was ‘bad.’”

  “Your parents and friends didn’t like Krissy?”

  “No, not really.” He sighed. “I couldn’t see it at the time, but they all said she was using me.”

  “For what?”

  “To get out of her home. She had a lousy home life.”

  “I remember hearing that. I also remember she was really pretty.”

  “Yes.” His mouth gave a wry twist. “And I’m ashamed to say that that’s pretty much all I saw until after I said ‘I do.’”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I am, too. And truthfully, it wasn’t just that she was pretty. She paid attention to me, she made me feel like I was her hero and that I could do anything.”

  Amber studied him, saw a flash of self-loathing. “She did that on purpose and you fell for it?”

  “Yeah. She played me like a piano. I was so gullible. And now she’s gone, and all I feel for her is...nothing. Or maybe pity. I hate that she was so unhappy that she felt she had to look for contentment in drugs and crime. And of course, there’s regret that I refused to listen to those who knew her better than I did.” He shrugged. “But I don’t miss her and I don’t think God made her do what she did so He could punish me. We were created to have free will. Krissy made her own choices and as a result, there were consequences. Those consequences affected me. The same is true of me. I made my choices instead of listening to those who were wiser than me and I suffered the consequences. But it wasn’t God out to punish me.”

  Amber stared at him as he spoke, his words resonating within her. She knew he was right. She’d grown up in church, listening to the Word and reading it on a daily basis. Until she joined the CIA. Then she’d let herself become consumed with the job, with doing whatever it took to ensure she handed out justice to those who deserved it. Perhaps God didn’t hate her, maybe He wasn’t mad at her. It could be she was just suffering the consequences of the choices she’d made. But she’d done good work, made the world a safer place for everyone including her family. But still...it was something to think about.

  Lance continued to look at her, his eyes...weird. Tender? “What?” she whispered.

  He blinked. “I just...” His hand came up and cupped her cheek.

  She swallowed even as her heart thudded. “You just what, Lance?”

  “Probably should take a look outside.” He leaned back and disappointment hit hard.

  “Sure. You do that and I’ll make sure Sam’s comfortable.”

  He nodded, but seemed reluctant to be the first one to move. So she pushed down the desire to fling caution to the wind, wrap her arms around him and kiss him silly. But as he said, there were consequences to every action and she wasn’t sure she was prepared to deal with them.

  While Lance peered through the heavy plasti
c over the opening, she walked over to check on Sam. It was now warm in the cave and he didn’t need to be all bundled up. She gently removed his scarf and coat, then pulled off his gloves. He felt hot to the touch. She frowned and slid a hand down his long-sleeved shirt to press it against his back. Also hot. “I think Sam might have a fever.”

  Lance looked back at her. “Could it be because he was all bundled up?”

  “Maybe. Come feel.”

  Lance stepped to the bed to press a hand to the child’s forehead. Sam muttered something and rolled to his side. Lance let his hand fall away and looked at her. “I think you’re right.”

  Fear struck her. She knew it was irrational. Kids got sick all the time and in a few days they got better. But how was she going to take care of a sick child and keep him away from the people who wanted him dead?

  TWELVE

  Lance looked over to see Amber sitting on the bed next to Sam. He thought she’d dozed off for a while. But over the last thirty minutes, every so often she would reach out and touch Sam’s forehead. “I’ve let Clay know where we are,” he said.

  “How?”

  He pointed to the small table in the corner near the “door.” It held a device that he didn’t think she’d noticed up to this point. “Police radio.”

  Her eyes widened and he held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I used a secure frequency. We deputies often need to talk among ourselves so we had to have a way to do that without worrying about outside ears.” He shrugged. “I wanted to be away from everything and everybody, but I didn’t want to be stupid. Cell phone service up here stinks. Clay and I had already been using the frequency to talk earlier so we just stayed on it.”

  “I heard you talking, but didn’t realize what you were doing. What did Clay say?”

  “Said they were still looking into the information we gave them including the name Ravi.”

  “Good.”